Jane Strauss takes a shot at 'The Full Monty'

by Peter Filichia, Star-Leger
August 13, 2009 15:42PM

 

Jane Strauss rehearses for her role as Jeanette in the ReVision Theatre of Asbury Park production of "The Full Monty." (photo credit: Alecia Brooks)

Jane Strauss knows she has a tough act to follow.

Last month, audiences were treated to no less than Elaine Stritch as Jeanette, the tough-as-ivory piano player, in the Paper Mill Playhouse's production of "The Full Monty."

That production is dead and gone, but the new staging of the 2000 Broadway hit musical finds Strauss in the role of the pianist who accompanies some well-meaning amateur strippers. She opens for a three-week run on Friday at the ReVision Theatre in Asbury Park.

"I'm sure Ms. Stritch was very good, but I can't worry about her," Strauss says. "Besides, I'm much too fascinated with the character herself. Jeanette doesn't let anyone walk over her. She's seen it all, done it all and conked out in Buffalo. But she doesn't have regrets -- and I admire anyone who doesn't."

Strauss grew up in Abington, Pa., before coming to New York in the 1970s. "I thought I'd be famous in two years," she says dryly. Looking back, she realizes how naïve she was. "I was a snob about commercial theater. In school, I was fascinated with experimental theater and heavy European theory. I even wound up playing Brutus in 'Julius Caesar.' But how can you make a living doing that?"

So she started auditioning for musical theater. "I said to myself, 'I'm going to be on Broadway -- even though I'm average-looking, and I'm not a charming person. Please God! Just give me one Broadway show!"

She got it, playing "a Londoner" in the 1984 revival of "Oliver!" Recalling that, Strauss lets out a heavy sigh. "These days I tell young actresses, don't say, 'Please God, give me just one Broadway credit!' -- because God might grant that specific wish and never give you a second Broadway show."

Since her break 25 years ago, Strauss has been touring. "That means I've played at least six different maids in six different shows," she says. Other roles have included Carlotta in a non-Webber version of "Phantom of the Opera" and understudying Miss Hannigan in "Annie."

She is still angry with the actress who was playing that role. "My parents were going to be in a town when we were there, so I asked her if she'd let me do the role one night so they could see me," Strauss recalls. "Can you believe she said no? Was she afraid some big producer would be in the audience, and she'd lose her big chance? We were only in Lima, Ohio."

At least she and the actress didn't come to blows. When Strauss did a Neil Simon play with Shelley Berman, she claims, "He kicked me because I touched his props. I cried on that one."

In "The Full Monty," Strauss's character admits to having been married eight times. It's a stretch for Strauss.
"I'm an old maid," says the 59-year-old, without a dot of self-pity. "We have a long line of old maids in my family -- though I do have an aunt who got married for the first time at 74."

She stops and thinks. "There was one man I wanted to marry, and I even proposed to him," she says. "This was Larry David, back when he wasn't anyone yet, when we hung around clubs together. You know, I still wouldn't mind marrying him. But it'd be fine if I just spent the next few years drinking carrot juice, having massages and maybe even adopting a foster child. So in that way, I'm very much unlike Jeanette."

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The Full Monty
Where: ReVision Theatre, Carousel House, 700 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park
When: Through Sept. 6. Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m.
How much: $25-$50. Call (732) 455-3059 or visit revisiontheatre.org